TRAI Q4 FY26 Telecom Performance Indicators Report

TRAI Q4 FY26 Telecom Performance Indicators Report

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released its quarterly performance indicator report for January-March 2026, providing comprehensive data on telecom, broadcasting, and related services. The report compiles information furnished by service providers across India.

Subscriber Metrics

Total internet subscribers increased significantly from 1,028.61 million at the end of December 2025 to 1,092.79 million at the end of March 2026, registering a quarterly growth rate of 6.24%. The internet subscriber base comprises 46.54 million wired internet subscribers and 1,046.26 million wireless internet subscribers. Broadband internet subscribers reached 1,065.88 million (5.81% quarterly growth), while narrowband subscribers stood at 26.91 million (26.62% quarterly growth).

Total telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,306.14 million to 1,330.58 million, showing 1.87% quarterly growth and 10.81% year-on-year growth. Overall tele-density increased from 91.74% to 93.26%. Urban telephone subscribers grew from 762.44 million to 778.79 million with urban tele-density increasing from 148.92% to 151.47%. Rural telephone subscribers increased from 543.70 million to 551.79 million with rural tele-density rising from 59.63% to 60.46%. The share of rural subscription decreased slightly from 41.63% to 41.47%.

Wireless subscribers (mobile + FWA) increased from 1,258.77 million to 1,282.33 million (1.87% quarterly growth), with wireless tele-density reaching 89.88%. Specifically, wireless mobile subscribers grew from 1,244.20 million to 1,265.73 million (1.73% quarterly growth, 9.40% YoY), achieving 88.71% tele-density. Wireline subscribers increased from 47.37 million to 48.25 million (1.86% quarterly growth, 30.25% YoY), with wireline tele-density at 3.38%.

Financial Performance

Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) for wireless service increased by 0.76% from ₹194.57 in Q4 December 2025 to ₹196.04 in Q4 March 2026, representing a 7.15% year-on-year increase. The prepaid segment ARPU was ₹196.22 per month while the postpaid segment was ₹194.31 per month for Q4 March 2026.

Overall monthly minutes of usage (MOU) increased by 0.43% from 1,012 in Q4 December 2025 to 1,017 in Q4 March 2026. Prepaid MOU per subscriber was 1,074 minutes while postpaid MOU was 477 minutes per month.

The telecom service sector reported Gross Revenue of ₹105,118 crore, Applicable Gross Revenue of ₹98,638 crore, and Adjusted Gross Revenue of ₹86,716 crore for Q4 March 2026. Quarterly growth rates were 2.58% for GR, 2.26% for ApGR, and 2.90% for AGR. Year-on-year growth rates were 6.99% for GR, 6.50% for ApGR, and 9.45% for AGR.

Pass-through charges increased from ₹11,296 crore to ₹12,494 crore (10.60% quarterly growth) but showed a 3.76% year-on-year decline. License fees increased from ₹6,733 crore to ₹6,936 crore (3.02% quarterly growth, 9.41% YoY growth). Access services contributed 83.59% of total Adjusted Gross Revenue, with GR, ApGR, AGR, and license fees showing positive growth while spectrum usage charges declined by 0.44%.

Quality of Service Compliance

All wireline service providers fully complied with 8 QoS benchmarks across all license service areas, including provision of service within 7 working days (≥98%), fault incidences (≤5 per 100 subscribers), POI congestion (≤0.5%), billing complaints (≤0.1%), and various service delivery parameters.

All wireless access service providers fully complied with 21 QoS parameters, including service availability (≥99%), cumulative downtime (≤1.5%), call set-up success rates (≥98% intra-network, ≥95% inter-network), packet drop rates (≤2%), latency (≤75 msec), and customer service metrics.

All broadband wireline service providers fully complied with 7 QoS parameters including latency (≤50 msec), packet drop rate (≤1%), bandwidth utilization (≤80%), jitter (≤40ms), and service accessibility (≥95%).

Broadcasting Services

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting permitted 917 private satellite TV channels for uplinking/downlinking. As reported by broadcasters, 908 channels were available for downlinking in India, comprising 342 pay TV channels (238 SD, 104 HD) and 566 free-to-air channels.

Pay DTH services had 4 operators with an active subscriber base of 49.05 million as of March 31, 2026, declining from 50.99 million in the previous quarter. There were 390 operational private FM radio channels across 120 cities operated by 31 operators, up from 385 channels, with JCL Infra Ltd. surrendering 2 stations and D B Corp Limited starting 7 new channels. FM radio advertisement revenue was ₹414.03 crore for the quarter, down from ₹419.29 crore in the previous quarter. Additionally, 564 community radio stations were operational.

Market Snapshot

Private operators held 92.32% market share of total telecom subscribers while PSU operators held 7.68%. Wireless data usage during the quarter reached 77,953 PB with average wireless data usage per subscriber of 26.70 GB per month and average revenue realization of ₹7.51 per GB. The report also documented 56,222 public Wi-Fi hotspots with 8,576 TB aggregate data consumption, 66,325 PMRTS services, and 201,239 VSAT terminals.